An astronaut who took part in the Artemis II mission to the Moon’s far side has shared a remarkable new view of Earth that few people have ever witnessed.
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen launched earlier this month on a 10-day journey aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
The crew splashed down safely on April 11, marking the first crewed flight to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
While in lunar orbit, mission commander Wiseman recorded a striking moment: Earth slowly slipping from view behind the Moon. He later shared the footage online, giving people a rare sense of what that perspective looks like from Orion.
Captured on a mobile device through the spacecraft window, the video has left viewers stunned by the scale and motion of the scene.
Watch the incredible feat here:
“Only one chance in this lifetime… Like watching sunset at the beach from the most foreign seat in the cosmos, I couldn’t resist a cell phone video of Earthset.
“You can hear the shutter on the Nikon as @astro_christina is hammering away on 3-shot brackets and capturing those exceptional Earthset photos through the 400mm lens.
“@astrovicglover was in window 3 watching with @astrojeremy next to him.
“I could barely see the Moon through the docking hatch window but the iPhone was the perfect size to catch the view…this is uncropped, uncut with 8x zoom which is quite comparable to the view of the human eye. Enjoy.”
After it made the rounds on Reddit, space fans quickly chimed in, impressed by how the clip conveys depth and distance.
“Honestly what I think is cooler is the moment before he zooms in. The movement of his phone camera gives such a sense of perspective, really shows how they were actually out there,” one person penned.
While a second added: “Totally different feel when you see Earth and Moon in motion. Wild.”
Beyond the headline-grabbing visuals, the Artemis II team also carried out key scientific work during the mission—while helping build public excitement for the next phase of lunar exploration.
Speaking at a press conference after the Artemis II mission concludes, Koch said: “I cannot overstate how important that was to us.
“It was every bit as important as accomplishing the technical goals and being there for our NASA teammates was to make this the world’s mission.”